Most enterprise governance conversations start with the wrong question: “Should we use Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC) or Microsoft Purview?”
As organizations expand across Microsoft Fabric, Databricks, Snowflake, Salesforce, and enterprise MDM, the answer is increasingly that both platforms have a role.
The real question is: “What does each platform own – and what happens when nobody decides?”
The strongest governance models emerge when organizations establish clear boundaries across business governance, metadata, security, compliance, and platform-native controls.
Our point of view is simple: CDGC should anchor enterprise governance, stewardship, business context, data quality, and MDM lineage. Purview should extend governance across the Microsoft ecosystem through sensitivity labeling, Data Loss Prevention, security, compliance, and Fabric integration.
The technology matters, but the operating model matters more.
The Risk Is Multiple Sources of Truth
Having multiple governance technologies is not inherently a problem. The problem starts when ownership is unclear. Without defined boundaries, platforms may catalog the same assets, apply different classifications, assign overlapping ownership, and create conflicting lineage. Suddenly, there are multiple definitions of “Customer,” multiple places for stewards to work, and no clear authoritative source. The goal is not to eliminate all overlap. It is to define which platform is authoritative for each governance capability.
CDGC and Purview Solve Different Problems
CDGC anchors enterprise trust and accountability, providing business context across a heterogeneous data estate, including:
- Business definitions
- Data ownership and stewardship
- Critical Data Elements
- Data quality governance
- Policies and standards
- Enterprise and MDM lineage
This is especially valuable when customer data originates in Salesforce, is mastered through Informatica MDM, moves into Snowflake or Databricks, and is ultimately consumed through Power BI or Fabric.
CDGC helps answer: “What does this data mean? Who owns it? Can it be trusted?”
Purview anchors protection across Microsoft, strengthening:
- Sensitivity labeling
- Data classification
- Data Loss Prevention
- Information protection
- Compliance
- Microsoft and Fabric governance
Purview helps answer: “Is this data sensitive? Who should access it? How should it be protected?”
CDGC governs meaning, trust, and accountability while Purview governs protection and enforcement across the Microsoft ecosystem.
Where Databricks and Snowflake Fit
Databricks Unity Catalog and Snowflake’s native governance capabilities remain important within their respective platforms. Unity Catalog can manage Databricks permissions, assets, and technical lineage. Snowflake provides native controls for access, tagging, classification, and masking. Those capabilities should be used. But platform governance is not the same as enterprise governance.
CDGC can provide the broader business context, ownership, quality, and lineage that connects assets across Databricks, Snowflake, Salesforce, Microsoft, and other enterprise platforms. The goal is not to replace native governance. It is to connect it into a broader operating model.
From Alation to CDGC: Moving Beyond the Catalog
Paradigm has seen this distinction firsthand. At a leading global asset servicer, Paradigm supported a modernization of the organization’s governance ecosystem that included transitioning away from Alation and establishing Informatica CDGC as a strategic governance platform. The shift was about more than replacing one catalog with another. The organization needed to connect metadata with business definitions, data ownership, stewardship, data quality, Critical Data Elements, MDM, and enterprise lineage.
Knowing that a table contains customer data is useful. Understanding which Salesforce objects contributed to the record, how the customer was mastered, what quality rules were applied, and who owns the outcome is governance at a different level. The lesson was not that every organization should replace its catalog. It was that organizations need to decide whether they are simply documenting their data estate or actually operating governance across it.
Going Deeper Than the Dashboard
We have seen a similar opportunity in complex Microsoft environments. Large Power BI estates can contain thousands of workspaces, semantic models, datasets, reports, and dashboards pulling from Fabric, Snowflake, Databricks, Salesforce, and other platforms.
In another engagement, Informatica metadata capabilities were used to scan complex Power BI environments and create deeper visibility into relationships and lineage.
The goal was not to replace Purview. It was to strengthen the broader governance model. Informatica can provide deeper enterprise metadata and lineage across heterogeneous systems, while Purview applies Microsoft-native sensitivity, protection, and compliance controls.
Together, they help answer:
- Where did the data come from?
- How was it transformed or mastered?
- Which reports depend on it?
- What does it mean?
- Is it sensitive, and how should it be protected?
The Fabric Era Requires Unified Governance
As Fabric adoption accelerates, Purview will become increasingly important for governing and protecting the Microsoft ecosystem. But Fabric does not eliminate the need for enterprise governance. Organizations still need common definitions, ownership, measurable data quality, stewardship, MDM governance, and lineage that extends into Salesforce, Databricks, Snowflake, SAP, and other platforms.
This is why we see Purview/Fabric and CDGC/enterprise governance as complementary strategies. A practical model is:
- CDGC owns business terminology, ownership, stewardship, Critical Data Elements, data quality, MDM lineage, and enterprise governance.
- Purview owns sensitivity labeling, information protection, DLP, compliance, and Microsoft/Fabric governance.
- Unity Catalog and Snowflake own platform-specific permissions, technical controls, and native governance.
The metadata can move between ecosystems. Accountability should not. That is what unified governance should mean. Unified governance means an intentional operating model – CDGC establishes enterprise trust and accountability, Purview extends protection across the Microsoft ecosystem, and platform-native tools govern their own environments.
In a multi-platform strategy, the real risk is leaving ownership undecided.
By Todd Bronshtein, Senior Manager, Data & AI